Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2019 is:gnomic \NOH-mik\ adjective1 : characterized by aphorism2 : given to the composition of aphoristic writingExamples:"That narrative power is real, as in the case of Shireen, but it came not from having a story but from telling it and persuading others of its truth. And we didn't see a trace of that in Bran's ascension. He generally fails to speak in anything other than fractured, gnomic phrases. He doesn't tend to connect." — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 21 May 2019"Mr. Marshall … was known for challenging established ways of thinking and for acquiring a reputation as the Pentagon's 'Yoda,' after the wise, gnomic Jedi master of 'Star Wars.'" — Matt Schudel, The Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2019Did you know?A gnome is an aphorism—that is, an observation or sentiment reduced to the form of a saying. Gnomes are sometimes couched in metaphorical or figurative language, they are often quite clever, and they are always concise. We borrowed the word gnome in the 16th century from the Greeks, who based their gnome on the verb gignōskein, meaning "to know." (The other gnome—referring to the dwarf of folklore—comes from New Latin and is unrelated to the aphoristic gnome.) We began using gnomic, the adjective form of gnome, in the late 18th century. It describes a style of writing, or sometimes speech, characterized by pithy phrases, which are often terse to the point of mysteriousness.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2019 is:speculate \SPEK-yuh-layt\ verb1 a : to meditate on or ponder a subject : reflectb : to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively2 : to assume a business risk in hope of gain; especially : to buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations3 : to take to be true on the basis of insufficient evidence : theorize4 : to be curious or doubtful about : wonderExamples:"Both celebrities have been tweeting each other for a while now, leading fans to speculate about their relationship status." — Suzette Fernandez, Billboard.com, 5 June 2019"Live footage showed that two hundred firefighters were attempting to tame the flames. Meanwhile talking heads droned on and on, speculating about the source of the spark that destroyed the cathedral's wooden roof and nave or how many billions it would cost to rebuild." — Christopher Schaefer, Commonweal, 17 May 2019Did you know?Speculate was adopted into English in the late 16th century from Latin speculatus, the past participle of the verb speculari, which means "to spy out" or "to examine." Speculari, in turn, derives from specula, meaning "lookout post," and ultimately from the Latin verb specere, meaning "to look (at)." Other conspicuous descendants of specere are inspect and suspect. Some less obvious descendants are the words despise, species, specimen, and as you may have speculated, conspicuous.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2019 is:provender \PRAH-vun-der\ noun1 : dry food for domestic animals : feed2 : food, victualsExamples:The restaurant's chef-owner prides himself on creating dishes from local provender."While these fish with their underslung mouths will eat insects, crayfish, mollusks, and other provender, a garden worm or piece of nightcrawler on the hook will work just fine." — Christopher Balusik, The Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal, 30 Mar. 2019Did you know?When English speakers first chewed on the word provender around 1300, it referred to a stipend (also known as a prebend) that a clergyman received from his cathedral or collegiate church. Within a half a century, the word's current meanings had developed. These days you're most likely to encounter provender in articles written by food and travel writers. A few such writers confuse provender with purveyor, meaning "a person or business that sells or provides something," but most of them keep the words straight, as Deidre Schipani does in this quote from the Post and Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina: "The kitchen remains true to its local roots. Buying from island farmers, fisherman, shrimpers, butchers and small local artisans keeps the provender and purveyors in alignment."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2019 is:auxiliary \awg-ZILL-yuh-ree\ adjective1 a : offering or providing helpb : functioning in a subsidiary capacity2 of a verb : accompanying another verb and typically expressing person, number, mood, or tense3 a : supplementary b : constituting a reserve4 of a boat : equipped with sails and a supplementary inboard engineExamples:"And meantime I had an auxiliary interest which had never paled yet, never lost its novelty for me since I had been in Arthur's kingdom: the behavior—born of nice and exact subdivisions of caste—of chance passers-by toward each other." — Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889"Graduating from big-name schools translates into better jobs and higher salaries, according to conventional wisdom. Plus, there are the auxiliary benefits that also lead to cash—powerful alumni networks, name recognition that attracts the interest of hiring managers and the right collegiate brand to catapult graduating seniors to top-notch graduate schools, which are themselves tickets to more money." — Zlati Meyer, USA Today, 18 March 2019Did you know?Auxiliary is used in a wide range of capacities in English to describe a person or thing that assists another. A fire department may bring in auxiliary units, for example, to battle a tough blaze, or a sailboat may be equipped with auxiliary engines to supply propulsion when the wind disappears. In grammar, an auxiliary verb assists another (main) verb to express person, number, mood, or tense, such as have in "They have been informed." The Latin source of auxiliary is auxilium, meaning "help."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2019 is:nosegay \NOHZ-gay\ noun: a small bunch of flowers : posyExamples:On arrival, the Queen was presented with her traditional nosegay of fresh spring flowers…. — Robert Hardman, The Daily Mail (London), 19 Apr. 2019"Many of the boys also were ordering nosegays or wrist corsages for their dates. 'I just had a group of three boys coming in with pictures on their phones of the girls' dresses,' [Megan] Mitchell said several days before the prom. The boys want the flowers to match the color of the dresses." — Kimberly Fornek, The Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2019Did you know?Nosegay is a homegrown word—that is, it originated in English. 15th-century Middle English speakers joined nose (which meant then what it does today) with gay (which, at the time, meant "ornament"). That makes nosegay an appropriate term for a bunch of flowers, which is indeed an ornament that appeals to the nose. Today, the word nosegay is especially common in the bridal business, where it usually refers to a specific type of bouquet: a round, tight bunch of flowers as opposed to a cascading bouquet or other type of arrangement. Occasionally, the word is used metaphorically for things that somehow resemble a bouquet. For example, a compact collection of enjoyably lighthearted short stories might be called "a nosegay of a book."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2019 is:embezzle \im-BEZZ-ul\ verb: to appropriate (something, such as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own useExamples:The company's senior accounts manager embezzled thousands of dollars from her employer by way of a loophole in the accounting procedures."A 43-year-old Houston man has been sentenced to six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $3.4 million from a Dallas-based design and construction company." — The Associated Press, 21 May 2018Did you know?English has a lot of verbs that mean "to steal," including pilfer, rob, swipe, plunder, filch, and thieve. Embezzle differs from these by stressing the improper appropriation of property to which a person is entrusted—often in the form of company funds. First appearing in English in the 15th century, embezzle derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French embesiller, meaning "to make away," formed from the prefix en- and the verb besiller, meaning "to steal or plunder." Related to embezzle is bezzle, a verb used in some British English dialects to mean "to waste or plunder" or "to drink or eat to excess."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2019 is:torrid \TOR-id\ adjective1 a : parched with heat especially of the sun : hotb : giving off intense heat : scorching2 : ardent, passionateExamples:"There are tales of torrid love affairs…." — Madeleine Aggeler, The Cut, 31 May 2019"Scotch is my daily drink of choice…. But when summer hits New York hard, I occasionally get something lighter and more refreshing to survive the increasingly torrid days." — Karla Alindahao, Forbes.com, 10 May 2015Did you know?Torrid derives from the Latin verb torrēre, which means "to burn" or "to parch" and is an ancestor of our word toast. Despite the dry implications of this root, it is also an ancestor of torrent, which can refer to a violent stream of liquid (as in "a torrent of rain"). Torrid first appeared in English in the 16th century, and was originally used to describe something burned or scorched by exposure to the sun. The term torrid zone later came about to refer to tropical regions of the Earth. Torrid has taken on several extended meanings that we would use for hot, including "showing fiery passion," as in "torrid love letters," or "displaying unusual luck or fortune," as in "a baseball player on a torrid hitting streak."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 12, 2019 is:See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2019 is:ostentatious /ah-stun-TAY-shus/ adjective: attracting or seeking to attract attention, admiration, or envy often by gaudiness or obviousness : overly elaborate or conspicuous : characterized by, fond of, or evincing ostentationExamples:Since striking it rich, Edwin has embraced a more ostentatious lifestyle, wearing expensive designer clothes, driving high-end sports cars, and frequenting the trendiest upscale nightclubs."The ostentatious chandeliers in the Crystal Room have been replaced with elegant-but-unassuming lighting." — Damon Cline, The Augusta Chronicle, 17 Apr. 2019Did you know?Showy, pretentious, and ostentatious all mean "given to outward display," but there are subtle differences in their meanings. Showy implies an imposing or striking appearance, but usually also implies cheapness or bad taste. Pretentious suggests an appearance of importance not justified by a thing's value or a person's standing. Ostentatious is the biggest show-off, stressing the vanity of the display. English speakers derived ostentatious from the noun ostentation, which can be traced back, via Middle French, to the Latin verb ostentare (meaning "to display"), a frequentative form of the verb ostendere, meaning "to show."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2019 is:lionize /LYE-uh-nyze/ verb: to treat as an object of great interest or importanceExamples:While her name was not attached to her books in her lifetime (she published anonymously), Jane Austen continues two centuries hence to be lionized as one of the English language's greatest novelists."The battle for Pointe du Hoc became one of the most heroic moments of the D-Day. It was lionized by the legendary Hollywood film 'The Longest Day' and by President Ronald Reagan, who stood on this hallowed ground to deliver one of his most famous speeches, extolling the bravery of the 'Boys of Pointe du Hoc' on the 40th anniversary…." — Scott Higham, The Washington Post, 3 June 2019Did you know?The lion is traditionally regarded as the king of beasts, and perhaps rightly so—the lion is brave, stately, and quite often ferocious. Those qualities that earn the lion respect from other creatures were probably in people's minds when, in the 18th century, lion came to be used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field. A veteran lawmaker might be considered one of the lions of the Senate; a literary lion has enjoyed a long career as a successful writer. This sense of lion forms the basis of lionize, which first appeared in English in the early 19th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2019 is:flair \FLAIR\ noun1 : a skill or instinctive ability to appreciate or make good use of something : talent; also : inclination, tendency2 : a uniquely attractive quality : styleExamples:"Chef Rohan is proficient in handling specialty restaurants and has a flair for culinary art trends." — Business World, 1 Apr. 2019"It's rare for a pop artist's signature single to encapsulate all of their respective strengths, but 'Bad Romance' manages to do so for Gaga, capturing her grandiose aesthetic, daring songwriting, lyrical flourishes and dramatic vocal flair." — Jason Lipshutz, Billboard.com, 28 Mar. 2019Did you know?In the 14th century, if someone told you that you had flair (or flayre as it was then commonly spelled), you might very well take offense. This is because in Middle English flayre meant "an odor." The word is derived from the Old French verb flairier ("to give off an odor"), which came, in turn, from Late Latin flagrare, itself an alteration of fragrare. (The English words fragrant and fragrance also derive from fragrare.) The "odor" sense of flair fell out of use, but in the 19th century, English speakers once again borrowed flair from the French—this time (influenced by the Modern French use of the word for the sense of smell) to indicate a discriminating sense or instinctive discernment.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2019 is:metathesis \muh-TATH-uh-sis\ noun: a change of place or condition: such asa : transposition of two phonemes in a wordb : a chemical reaction in which different kinds of molecules exchange parts to form other kinds of moleculesExamples:The study examined metathesis in the speech of children between the ages of three and six."'Aks' and 'ask' both derive from one verb in Old English that featured the same transposition of sounds and gave rise to two equally-valid pronunciations: 'ascian' and 'acsian.' In linguistic terminology, this transposition, or swapping of sounds, is called metathesis….'" — Jordan MacKenzie, The Independent Florida Alligator (University of Florida), 10 Feb. 2016Did you know?One familiar example of metathesis is the English word thrill, which was thyrlian in Old English and thirlen in Middle English. By the late 16th century, native English speakers had switched the placement of the r to form thrill. Another example is the alteration of curd into crud (the earliest sense of which was, unsurprisingly, curd). It probably won't surprise you to learn that the origin of metathesis lies in the idea of transposition—the word was borrowed into English in the mid-16th century and derives via Late Latin from the Greek verb metatithenai, meaning "to transpose."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2019 is:churlish \CHUR-lish\ adjective1 : of, resembling, or characteristic of a churl : vulgar2 : marked by a lack of civility or graciousness : surly3 : difficult to work with or deal with : intractableExamples:"After welcoming me to my upstairs suite, Doug announces that it's time for guests to enjoy a complimentary mint julep and cheese plate, an offer that would be churlish to turn down." — Paul Oswell, The Atlanta Magazine, 16 May 2019"The playlist for Slater's documentary is so chockablock with great songs that it may seem churlish to complain about the lack of this golden-oldie or that one." — Joe Leydon, Variety, 22 May 2019Did you know?It is easy to understand how churlish has come to mean "vulgar," "surly," and "intractable"—if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest rank who owned and cultivated a small farm. He had certain rights and had upward mobility to rise to the rank of thane. After the Norman Conquest, however, many churls became serfs, a change in status that meant losing not just social mobility but geographical mobility as well. The lowest rungs of a social system often serve as inspiration for a language's pejoratives, and churl eventually came to be used as a term for a rude, ill-bred person.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 6, 2019 is:planet \PLAN-ut\ noun1 a (1) : any of the large bodies that revolve around the sun in the solar system (2) : a similar body associated with another starb : earth —usually used with thec : any of the seven celestial bodies sun, moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn that in ancient belief have motions of their own among the fixed stars2 : a celestial body held to influence the fate of human beings3 : a person or thing of great importance : luminaryExamples:"Dell is the father of Steph Curry, and Steph (in case you've been living on another planet) plays for the Golden State Warriors, the team that Drake's beloved Raptors have to beat if they're going to bring an NBA Championship home." — Charlotte Wilder, Yahoo! Sports, 31 May 2019"Any good project requires the planets lining up, and Nick was definitely a major planet. A friend introduced us and I knew he was the right person within about a minute." — Peter Bahouth, quoted on Mother Nature Network, 18 March 2015Did you know?Planet goes back to ancient Greek planēt- (literally, "wanderer"), which is derived from planasthai, a Greek verb which means "to wander." The word was originally applied to any of seven visible celestial bodies which appeared to move independently of the fixed stars—the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In line with astronomical discovery and advancement, planet began to be used specifically of the rocky or gaseous bodies that orbit around the sun—a definition which excluded the moon and the sun but included the Earth and, as they were discovered, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union developed a narrower definition of planet, effectively demoting Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet," a celestial body that is spherical and orbits the sun but is not large enough to disturb other objects from its orbit.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 5, 2019 is:inkhorn \INK-horn\ adjective: ostentatiously learned : pedanticExamples:Richard's use of inkhorn terminology in his essay didn't impress his professor, whereas simple language demonstrating a clear understanding of the material would have done the trick."Inkhorn terms understandably struck many of their readers as incomprehensible, verbal zombies scarily mixed among—and feeding off—unsuspecting, humble English." — Leslie Dunton-Downer, The English is Coming!, 2010Did you know?Picture an ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to his belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century England, such ink bottles were dubbed (not surprisingly) inkhorns. During the Renaissance, learned writers often borrowed words from Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar English alternatives. But in the 16th century, some scholars argued for the use of native terms over Latinate forms, and a lively intellectual debate over the merits of each began. Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used inkhorn as an adjective for Latinate or pretentious language.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2019 is:girandole \JEER-un-dohl\ noun1 : a radiating and showy composition (such as a cluster of skyrockets fired together)2 : an ornamental branched candlestick3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central pieceExamples:"The centerpiece of the decorative program was the figure of Eternity seated on a triumphal chariot drawn by four horses, itself a fuoco d'artificio (fireworks spectacle), and flanked by two smaller girandoles of three hundred rockets each." — Kevin Salatino, Incendiary Art: The Representation of Fireworks in Early Modern Europe, 1997"The magnificent hall hints at extravagance within: The walls are lined in pleated pistachio silk; … glimmering crystal girandoles stand sentry beside the fireplace." — Plum Sykes, Vogue, 19 Mar. 2018Did you know?The earliest uses of girandole in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. Such a pattern is reflected in the word's etymology: girandole can be traced back by way of French and Italian to the Latin word gyrus, meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century, girandole was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word's use for a kind of earring was lit during the 19th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 3, 2019 is:sedulous \SEJ-uh-lus\ adjective1 : involving or accomplished with careful perseverance2 : diligent in application or pursuitExamples:"To start: a black screen, her name in white. As the overture plays, the scene unfolds with sedulous magic—smoke and steam coil and unfurl, lightening the screen and darkening her name. A man with a lantern appears, tumbling through space, as the architecture of a train station emerges through the condensation of vapor." — Irene Hsiao, The Chicago Reader, 19 Feb. 2019"The charter elementary school where I work, while pedagogically inspiring and impressively staffed, is a reflection of our education system as a whole: sedulous people stretched too thin; classrooms with too many bodies; little, if any, funding." — Natalie Babcock, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2018Did you know?No fooling—the word sedulous ultimately comes from Latin se dolus, which literally means "without guile." Those two words were eventually melded into one, sedulo, meaning "sincerely" or "diligently," and from that root developed Latin sedulus and English sedulous. Don't let the sed- beginning mislead you; sedulous is not related to words such as sedentary or sedate (those derive from the Latin verb sedēre, meaning "to sit"). Sedulous people are not the sedate or sedentary sort. They're the hardworking types Scottish author Samuel Smiles must have had in mind when he wrote in his 1859 book Self-Help, "Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 2, 2019 is:burgeon \BER-jun\ verb1 a : to send forth new growth (such as buds or branches) : sproutb : bloom2 : to grow and expand rapidly : flourishExamples:The trout population in the stream has burgeoned since the town implemented its laws against overfishing."Original plans called for Hollywood Studios to be an entertainment pavilion…. But as concepts burgeoned among Disney's 'Imagineers,' it became clear that there was enough material to make this pavilion a theme park of its own." — Bruce Pecho, The Florida Times-Union, 5 May 2019Did you know?Burgeon first appeared in Middle English as burjonen—a borrowing from the Anglo-French burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer P. G. Wodehouse used it in the 1946 novel Joy in the Morning: "I weighed this. It sounded promising. Hope began to burgeon." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2019 is:afflatus \uh-FLAY-tus\ noun: a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspirationExamples:"If one were to throw away the 300 cantatas, the 100-odd chorale preludes, the three oratorios, the passions, and the Mass (which would be the equivalent of destroying half of Shakespeare), still the other half would sustain Bach as a creature whose afflatus is inexplicable in the absence of a belief in God." — William F. Buckley Jr., The National Review, 26 Feb. 2018"Allmusic lists quite a few tunes called 'Crystal City,' like this smooth-jazz number by André Ward and this prog-rock song by Steve Hillage, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the Arlington neighborhood served as afflatus for any of them." — Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian, 13 Nov. 2018Did you know?Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that inspire derives in part from a word meaning "to breathe"—Latin spirare. Afflatus is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. Afflatus, which in Latin means "the act of blowing or breathing on," was formed from the prefix ad- ("to, toward") and the Latin verb flare ("to blow"). That Latin verb gave us such words as inflate and (via French) soufflé. The Roman orator Cicero used afflatus in his writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective divine, but poets and artists can find afflatus in the material world as well.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2019 is:plummy \PLUMM-ee\ adjective1 a : full of plumsb : choice, desirable2 a : having a plum colorb : rich and mellow often to the point of affectationExamples:"… meetings are spent in youthful yammering about art, music and poetry, in that plummy British way…." — Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post, 6 May 2019"Tyrion survived because he somehow scored the plummy roles of judge, jury and executioner at his own … trial." — Kayleigh Dray, Stylist Magazine (UK), 21 May 2019Did you know?The name of the fruit plum goes back to Old English. During the 18th century, the word plum became a delectable ingredient in the language. The word for the sweet, juicy fruit denoted such things as a fortune of 100,000 pounds, a rich person, and, by the early 19th century, anything desirable. The related adjective plummy blossomed in the early 18th century with the meaning "full of plums" and had branched out as an adjective for desirable things by the century's end. By the 19th century, it was being used to describe rich, mellow voices. The sweetness of the word did eventually sour, however, when people began to use it to describe stilted or affected speech, as in "the teacher used a plummy voice when he talked to the students' parents."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 29, 2019 is:hig-ul-dee-PIG-ul-dee \hig-ul-dee-PIG-ul-dee\ adverb: in a confused, disordered, or random mannerExamples:Maya took a deep breath and began the daunting task of sorting through the hundreds of photos scattered higgledy-piggledy across the floor."Indeed, the hallways of Geokon's offices are lined with metal filing cabinets, and workshops have been added in higgledy-piggledy over the years, giving the premises a haphazard feel." — John Lippman, The Valley News (White River Junction, Vermont), 11 Nov. 2018Did you know?We really have no idea where higgledy-piggledy came from, but we do know it's a perfect demonstration of English speakers' fondness for reduplication—that is, for forming new words by repetition of a base word often with a slight change of sound. In this case, the base word might actually be the second term, which encompasses the word pig and calls to mind the association of pigs with disorderliness. Although we don't know when exactly higgledy-piggledy first appeared in print, we do know that the word has been around since before 1600. John Florio's A Worlde of Wordes, an English-Italian dictionary first published in 1598, used higgledy-piggley as a defining term for the Italian word alla rinfusa, along with two other examples of reduplication, pell-mell and helter-skelter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2019 is:volition \voh-LISH-un\ noun1 : the power of choosing or determining : will2 : an act of making a choice or decision; also : a choice or decision madeExamples:"The rules of the universe created certain compulsions, as did the formal and structural conventions I'd put in motion. Slowly, without any volition from me…, the characters started to do certain things, each on his or her own, the sum total of which resulted, in the end, in a broad, cooperative pattern that seemed to be arguing for what I'd call a viral theory of goodness." — George Saunders, The Guardian, 4 Mar. 2017"Mr. [Gus] Ben David said there is no chance that the wild coyote was brought to the Island by a human. 'No, no way. Coyotes, even if you raise one from a little pup, they're vicious. No way that animal was brought to this Island. That animal basically got here on its own volition,' he said." — Noah Asimow, The Vineyard Gazette (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts), 15 May 2019Did you know?Volition ultimately derives from the Latin verb velle, meaning "to will" or "to wish." (The adjective voluntary descends from the same source.) English speakers borrowed the term from French in the 17th century, using it at first to mean "an act of choosing," a meaning Herman Melville employed in Moby Dick (1851): "Almost simultaneously, with a mighty volition of ungraduated, instantaneous swiftness, the White Whale darted through the weltering sea." Melville's use comes about a century after the word had developed an additional meaning: "the power to choose." This meaning, now the word's dominant use, is found in such sentences as "Members must join of their own volition." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2019 is:acquisitive \uh-KWIZ-uh-tiv\ adjective: strongly desirous of acquiring and possessingExamples:The game aims to teach middle schoolers to balance their acquisitive instincts with a consideration of what will benefit society as a whole."[Property, by Lionel Shriver, is a] collection of short fiction that becomes a catalog of the ways an acquisitive urge can go astray. Renters become unhappy owners; a gift prompts a battle among friends; a man and his father feud over £160 and the price of an airmail stamp." — _The New York Times_, 2 Dec. 2018Did you know?While acquisitive is a useful synonym of the likes of greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition. The former of that pair is most often used to mean "to get as one's own," as in "skills acquired through practice"; the latter refers either to the act of acquiring something, as in "the acquisition of skills," or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in "the museum's recent acquisitions." All three have as their ultimate source the Latin word acquīrere, meaning "to acquire." While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century, acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning "capable of acquiring" that dates to the late 16th century, but its "greedy" meaning dates only to the early 19th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2019 is:supersede \soo-per-SEED\ verb1 a : to cause to be set asideb : to force out of use as inferior2 : to take the place or position of3 : to displace in favor of anotherExamples:"What may someday supersede Einstein's hypothesis is any genius' good guess. In the meantime, not only the theory of relativity but also Newton's laws, with all their known limitations, serve us rather well in navigating through space and in constructing bridges and dams on earth." — Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human, 1992"This park also supersedes what must have been the world's cleverest playground—a 10-foot-high fort made of telephone poles or logs up the hill at Rocky Ridge Park. (That simple, but popular play area was dismantled. Kids kept getting their heads stuck between the poles.)" — Jim McClure, The York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record, 5 May 2019Did you know?Supersede ultimately derives from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be superior to," or "to refrain from," but it came to us through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used in the sense of "to defer." It will come as no surprise that modern English speakers can be confused about how to spell this word—it sometimes turns up as supercede. In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a c. The s spelling has been the dominant choice since the 16th century, and while both spellings can be etymologically justified, supersede is now regarded as the "correct" version.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2019 is:gritty \GRIT-ee\ adjective1 : containing or resembling grit2 : courageously persistent : plucky3 : having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realismExamples:"Unlike a lot of natural deodorants that also use baking soda but have a gritty texture, this stick has a gel-like consistency that doesn't aggravate tender underarm skin." — Kristine Gill, Real Simple, 7 May 2019"[John] Singleton was nominated for two Oscars—Best Director and Best Original Screenplay—for Boyz n the Hood…. The gritty tale of gangs in South Central Los Angeles marked the acting debuts of Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut, and also starred Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King and Angela Bassett." — Bruce Haring, Deadline, 20 Apr. 2019Did you know?Gritty comes from grit ("small hard granules"), which in turn derives, via Middle English, from an Old English word for "sand" or "gravel." Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of "resembling or containing small hard granules." Grit entered American slang with the meaning "courage or persistence" in the early 19th century, and gritty followed suit with a corresponding "plucky" sense. By the 19th century's end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2019 is:contraption \kun-TRAP-shun\ noun: device, gadgetExamples:"In Connecticut, the Hartford Marathon Foundation worked with an engineering company to create a 40-foot-long drinking fountain for the finish line of its race. The contraption, known as the Bubbler, allows multiple people to drink at the same time and is estimated to have saved about 85,000 plastic bottles and wax cups since 2007, according to the foundation." — Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2019"And scientists are creating devices to track the decay of icebergs. The small, cylindrical contraptions will be deployed in the Arctic, where they will sit atop ice as it breaks off and floats away from larger ice formations." — Laura Krantz, The Boston Globe, 9 May 2019Did you know?English has a number of words that can be used as general terms for mechanical or electronic devices, including gadget, gizmo, widget, and contraption. In addition to their meaning, these four words also have a couple of other things in common. First, they are all relative newcomers to the language. The oldest, contraption, entered the language in the early 1800s. Second, the origins of all four are a bit of a mystery. While widget is believed to be an alteration of gadget, the origins of gadget are unknown—it didn't appear in print until later in the 19th century, and it is believed to have been used earlier among sailors. Gizmo sprang into American English in the mid-20th century from origins unknown. The word contraption may be a blend of contrivance (which can be used as another synonym of gadget), trap, and invention.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2019 is:lade \LAYD\ verb1 a : to put a load or burden on or in : loadb : to put or place as a load especially for shipment : shipc : to load heavily or oppressively2 : dip, ladleExamples:"… we might, for example, see what are arguably Mr. Boontje's two most influential designs: his Blossom chandelier for Swarovski, a sparkling spray of branches laden with rosy crystals; and the more affordable Garland light…." — Pilar Viladas, The New York Times, 9 May 2019"There were no pictures on the walls but here and there boughs laden with heavy-petalled flowers spread widely against them." — Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, 1915Did you know?Lade most often occurs in its past participle form laden, as shown in our examples. There is also the adjective laden, best distinguished from the verb by its placement before nouns, as in "laden ships" or "a laden heart." (The adjective is also at work in hyphenated terms like sugar-laden.) Lade has been in use for more than a millennium and formerly had a nominal counterpart: the noun lade, meaning "load" or "cargo," came to be around the same time but is now obsolete. A few short decades after it faded from active use, the noun lading took on the same meaning. Lading is still in use and appears most often in bill of lading—a term referring to a document that lists goods being shipped and specifies the terms of their transport.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2019 is:puckish \PUCK-ish\ adjective: impish, whimsicalExamples:"Ms. Jamon, with her charm and puckish humor, makes the restaurant feel like a home. For Christmas in 2009, after their move from Los Angeles, there was a fully decorated tree hanging upside down from the ceiling. 'Everything in the world seems upside down,' she said, 'so I decided to match it.'" — John Willoughby, The New York Times, 14 Mar. 2019"[Thomas] Venning said the wheelchair became a symbol … of Stephen Hawking's 'puckish sense of humor.' He once ran over Prince Charles' toes—and reportedly joked that he wished he had done the same to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—and appeared in a 'Monty Python' skit running down fellow physicist Brian Cox." — The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Oct. 2018Did you know?We know Puck as "that merry wanderer of the night," the shape-changing, maiden-frightening, mischief-sowing henchman to the king of the fairies in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Bard drew on English folklore in casting his character, but the traditional Puck was more malicious than the Shakespearean imp; he was an evil spirit or demon. In medieval England, this nasty hobgoblin was known as the puke or pouke, names related to the Old Norse pūki, meaning "devil." (There is no connection to modern English puke.) But it was the Bard's characterization that stuck, and by the time the adjective puckish started appearing regularly in English texts in the 1800s the association was one of impishness, not evil.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2019 is:tonsorial \tahn-SOR-ee-ul\ adjective: of or relating to a barber or the work of a barberExamples:"Once again Ryan's Barber Shop and Shaving Parlor … provided the tonsorial team the chairs and the needed supplies for the men to sit down and get their faces cleaned up or hair trimmed." — Steve Moran, The Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, 6 Dec. 2018"I think we are still a long way off from having tonsorial robots, so whatever the trends and styles that come about ... as long as we are all still growing hair out of our heads, there will be patrons attending the barbershop." — Adam Castleforte, quoted in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 24 Sept. 2018Did you know?Tonsorial is a fancy word that describes the work of those who give shaves and haircuts. (It can apply more broadly to hairdressers as well.) It derives from the Latin verb tondēre, meaning "to shear, clip, or crop." (Another descendant, tonsor, is an archaic word for a barber.) You might be more familiar with the related noun tonsure, which refers to the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics, or the religious rite of clipping the hair of one being admitted as a cleric. The verb tonsure means "to shave the head of" or "to confer the tonsure upon."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2019 is:demeanor \dih-MEE-ner\ noun: behavior toward others : outward mannerExamples:The professor's friendly and laid-back demeanor made him a favorite among the students."Detroit's well-earned place as one of America's most iconic cities is a credit to its past, present and future. It is a city that has never had it easy, but its steely demeanor has also always encased and protected a powerful heart." — Adweek.com, 14 May 2019Did you know?There's a long trail from the Latin origins of demeanor to its English incarnation. It starts with minari, "to threaten"—a word connected to the threatening cries of cattle drivers. Leaving minari, we soon encounter a close Latin relation, minare; it means "to drive," and was once used specifically of driving animals for herding. From there, the path leads us to Anglo-French, where we pass by mener ("to lead") and then demener ("to conduct"). Next comes Middle English demenen and then Modern English demean, both meaning "to conduct (oneself) in a certain manner." And, finally, we take one last step, and add the suffix -or to demean to get demeanor.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2019 is:insuperable \in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul\ adjective: incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solvedExamples:Though it had appeared that the visiting team had an insuperable lead, the home team rallied to win in the end."'Life and Fate,' his resulting magnum opus, is not likely to be unseated as the greatest Second World War novel ever written. Grossman's challenge over the ten years of its composition seems nearly insuperable: to evoke the scope and magnitude of the conflict without turning his characters into cogs in a vast military machine." — Sam Sacks, The New Yorker, 25 June 2013Did you know?Insuperable first appeared in print in the 14th century, and as a close synonym to insurmountable, it still means now approximately what it did then. In Latin, superare means "to go over, surmount, overcome, or excel." (The sur- in surmount is related to the Latin prefix super-.) The Latin word insuperabilis, from which insuperable is derived, was formed by combining the negative prefix in- with superare plus abilis ("able"). Hence, insuperabilis means "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable." The word can describe physical barriers that cannot be scaled (such as walls or mountains) as well as more figurative challenges, obstacles, or difficulties.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2019 is:boilerplate \BOY-ler-playt\ noun1 : syndicated material supplied especially to weekly newspapers in matrix or plate form2 a : standardized textb : formulaic or hackneyed language3 : tightly packed icy snowExamples:"'I think the middle class is getting clobbered,' he said one day, over lunch. 'I think there has to be a significant change in both, over time, fiscal policy and tax policy.' He was trying to get that view 'further insinuated into the White House,' he said. It seemed like boilerplate, and I didn't quote it." — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 26 Apr. 2019"… we ask each of our esteemed colleagues to negotiate hard to get anti-harassment language woven into all service agreements, to make it part of the basic boilerplate and/or the standard asks in any negotiation." — Monika Tashman, Esq., et al., Billboard.com, 12 Nov. 2018Did you know?In the days before computers, small, local newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates. The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn't have to set it. Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates "boiler plates" because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers. Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Because boilerplate stories were more often filler than hard news, the word acquired negative connotations and gained another sense widely used today, such as "hackneyed or unoriginal writing."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2019 is:flounce \FLOUNSS\ verb1 a : to move with exaggerated jerky or bouncy motionsb : to go with sudden determination2 : flounder, struggleExamples:"With skirts flouncing, 15 young women ascended the steps … to a traditional Mexican birthday song played in a mariachi style." — Laurel Wamsley and Vanessa Romo, NPR, 19 July 2017"The Master of the Music flounced out with the choir flouncing out in perfect unison behind him." — Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals, 2009Did you know?The story behind flounce is an elusive one. The verb's earliest recorded uses in English occurred in the mid-1500s, and some scholars believe it is related to the Norwegian verb flunsa (meaning "to hurry" or "to work briskly") and Swedish flunsa ("to fall with a splash" or "to plunge"). The connection is uncertain, however, because the flunsa verbs did not appear in their respective languages until the 18th century, long after flounce surfaced in English. A second distinct sense of flounce, referring to a strip or ruffle of fabric attached on one edge, did not appear in English until the 18th century. This flounce derives from the Middle English frouncen, meaning "to curl."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2019 is:assiduous \uh-SIJ-uh-wus\ adjective: showing great care, attention, and effort : marked by careful unremitting attention or persistent applicationExamples:"Ryan Murphy …, in his last FX series before founding his Netflix empire, was also assiduous about hiring transgender actors and creative staff…." — James Poniewozik, The New York Times, 1 June 2018"In conjunction with his efforts as a painter, Goya was an assiduous draftsman and printmaker. His first efforts at etching include … royal portraiture and grand subject paintings such as the Feast of Bacchus." — Michael A. Gibson, Jr. and Jessica Brandrup, NBCDFW.com (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas), 24 Oct. 2018Did you know?Judges presiding over assizes (former periodical sessions of the superior courts in English counties) had to be assiduous in assessing how to best address their cases. Not only were their efforts invaluable, but they also serve as a fine demonstration of the etymologies of assiduous, assess, and assize. All three of those words derive from the Latin verb assidēre, which is variously translated as "to sit beside," "to take care of," or "to assist in the office of a judge." Assidēre, in turn, is a composite of the prefix ad- (in this case, meaning "near" or "adjacent to") and sedēre, meaning "to sit."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2019 is:recidivism \rih-SID-uh-viz-um\ noun: a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behaviorExamples:The judge took the guilty felon's rate of recidivism into account when she deliberated her sentence."She said her main purpose is to support seniors' efforts to 'age in place' with dignity, rather than face premature institutionalization. Her outreach has reduced recidivism into hospitals for many seniors." — Mort Mazor, The Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), 8 May 2019Did you know?Recidivism means literally "a falling back" and usually implies "into bad habits." It comes from the Latin word recidivus, which means "recurring." Recidivus itself comes from the Latin verb recidere, which is a composite of the prefix re- and the verb cadere (meaning "to fall") and means "to fall back." Recidivists tend to relapse, or "fall back," into old habits and particularly crime. Deciduous and incident are two other English words that have roots in cadere. Deciduous comes from the verb decidere (de- plus cadere), which means "to fall off." And incident comes from incidere (in- plus cadere), which means "to fall into."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2019 is:oneiric \oh-NYE-rik\ adjective: of or relating to dreams : dreamyExamples:The paintings, filled with fantastical imagery conjured by the artist's imagination, have a compellingly oneiric quality."Somewhere along the twisty path of the twentieth century, Vladimir Nabokov, our brilliant dreamer-in-chief, came into contact with [aeronautical engineer and philosopher John W.] Dunne's theories of oneiric prophecy and was evidently inspired by them." — Nicholson Baker, The New Republic, 21 Feb. 2018Did you know?The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form -mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2019 is:scrutinize \SKROO-tuh-nyze\ verb1 : to examine closely and minutely  2 : to make a scrutinyExamples:"I think the biggest misconception out there is that every accident a commercial motor vehicle is involved in, the general public feels it is the big rig's fault. Little does the general public know that everything from what needs to be inspected each day on these vehicles to hours of service to maintenance procedures, and even training, is so highly scrutinized either through regulations or insurance policies, or even our internal audits and tracking." — Matt McDonald, quoted in The Caledon Enterprise, 15 Apr. 2019"… Vaughn will be held to high expectations…. She'll present her first budget report to the council Tuesday and, unlike previous meetings where city council gave scarce attention to the CFO report, her report will be closely scrutinized." — The Dispatch (Columbus, Mississippi), 3 May 2019Did you know?A close look at the etymology of scrutinize reveals that the word stems from the Latin verb scrutari (meaning "to search" or "to examine"), which in turn probably comes from scruta (meaning "trash," or more specifically "a mixture of worthwhile articles and trash"). In the 15th century, scrutari gave us the noun scrutiny, a word that originally meant "a formal vote" and then "an official examination of votes." Scrutinize retained reference to voting, with the meaning "to examine votes," at least into the 18th century. (But even today in Britain, a scrutineer is a person who counts votes.)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2019 is:equivocal \ih-KWIV-uh-kul\ adjective1 a : subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuseb : uncertain as an indication or sign  2 a : of uncertain nature or classificationb : of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing : undecidedc : of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitudeExamples:When I asked Frances how her job was going, she gave me an equivocal response: "Let's just say I won't be a sous-chef for much longer.""'I don't know if this is gonna be terrible or brilliant,' says one of the brothers. Had he realised that he'd be the subject of a feature documentary, he might have been less equivocal." — Ryan Gilbey, The New Statesman, 21 Nov. 2018Did you know?Equivocal, vague, and ambiguous all mean "not clearly understandable" and are used to describe confusing speech or writing. Equivocal—which can be traced back to the Latin prefix aequi- (equi-) and the Latin word vox ("voice")—applies to language left open to differing interpretations with the intention of deceiving or evading ("moral precepts with equivocal phrasing"). Vague implies a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration ("I had only a vague idea of how to get there"). Ambiguous, like equivocal, applies to language capable of more than one interpretation but usually does not have the negative connotations of deception or evasion ("the poet's wording is intentionally ambiguous").See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2019 is:chasten \CHAY-sun\ verb1 : to correct by punishment or suffering : discipline; also : purify2 a : to prune (something, such as a work or style of art) of excess, pretense, or falsity : refineb : to cause to be more humble or restrained : subdueExamples:He was very arrogant as a younger man, but he has been sufficiently chastened by life's hardships and is now more cognizant of his own failings and weaknesses."My hubris awakened the wrath of the Phlegm Gods who long ago decreed that should one choose to live in Austin, 'It's not if you will develop allergies, it's when.' To chasten me they sent us one of the wettest winters on record just to get every tree, shrub and blade of grass within breathing distance in the mood." — Sarah Bird, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, 14 Apr. 2019Did you know?If you say you would castigate or chastise someone in order to chasten them, you demonstrate a good knowledge of the origin of chasten—all three verbs derive from the Latin verb castigare, meaning "to punish." (Castigare combines Latin castus, which means "pure" and is the source of English chaste, with the verb agere, meaning "to lead" or "to drive.") Castigate, chastise, and chasten share the sense of "to subject to severe and often physical punishment," but all three verbs are now as likely to refer to a verbal dressing-down as to a physical lesson. Chasten (which arrived in English via Anglo-French chastier) can also be used to mean "to prune of excess, pretense, or falsity." This led to the more general sense of "to make more subdued," although the humility can be imposed by a humiliating situation as easily as by a strict taskmaster.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2019 is:ineffable \in-EFF-uh-bul\ adjective1 a : incapable of being expressed in words : indescribableb : inexpressibly bad : unspeakable2 : not to be uttered : tabooExamples:"Undaunted, in 'Why You Like It' Nolan Gasser attempts to explain the ineffable ways music produces sensations in listeners' brains: its power to move people to tears, evoke awe and induce involuntary toe-tapping." — The Economist, 27 Apr. 2019"Such haziness was inevitable, because the questions Buber was trying to answer were the most ineffable ones of human life: What is the meaning of our existence? How can we achieve the feeling of wholeness that we so painfully lack?" — Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2019Did you know?"Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness," wrote Frederick Douglass in his autobiography. Reading Douglass's words, it's easy to see that ineffable means "indescribable" or "unspeakable." And when we break down the word to its Latin roots, it's easy to see how those meanings came about. Ineffable comes from ineffābilis, which joins the prefix in-, meaning "not," with the adjective effābilis, meaning "capable of being expressed." Effābilis comes from effārī ("to speak out"), which in turn comes from ex- and fārī ("to speak").See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2019 is:vocation \voh-KAY-shun\ noun1 a : a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially : a divine call to the religious lifeb : an entry into the priesthood or a religious order2 a : the work in which a person is employed : occupationb : the persons engaged in a particular occupation3 : the special function of an individual or groupExamples:"The superpower I've always wished for is invisibility, and I chose my vocation accordingly. A novelist gets 140,000 words per one tiny author photo. That's a visibility ratio I can live with." — Barbara Kingsolver, quoted in The New Statesman (UK), 15 Oct. 2018"I'd just graduated law school and was struggling to find a field of law that would interest me. My brother Tony … mentioned how his friend and college music professor had a lawyer … who was a big shot in the music industry. I was intrigued; music was my passion, but law would be my vocation. I had no idea I could potentially work in both fields. — Robert S. Meloni, Billboard.com, 15 Oct. 2018Did you know?Vocation has been making its voice heard in English since the 15th century, when it referred to a summons from God to perform a particular task or function in life, especially a religious career. It should come as no surprise, then, that the word is a descendant of Latin vocatio, meaning "summons." Vocatio, in turn, comes from vocare, meaning "to call," which itself is from vox, meaning "voice." Vocation also has a secular position in the English language as a word for the strong desire to do a certain kind of work or the work itself, much like the words calling or occupation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2019 is:quibble \KWIB-ul\ verb1 : to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words2 a : to find fault by raising trivial or frivolous objectionb : to engage in a petty quarrel : bicker3 : to subject to minor objections or criticismsExamples: "A few researchers and doctors have also quibbled with some of the details in the dietary advice…." — Eliza Barclay, Vox.com, 24 Jan. 2019"I am not quibbling with the quality of these extravagant boats, but it seems some anglers believe a high-ticket item will make them better fishermen." — Mike Jackson, The Daily Herald (Chicago), 5 May 2019Did you know?In addition to functioning as a verb, quibble also exists as a noun meaning "an evasion of or shift from the point" and "a minor objection or criticism." Both forms of the word arrived in English in the mid-17th century. Presumably (though not certainly) quibble originated as a diminutive of a now obsolete word, quib, which also meant "quibble." In fact, although language experts may quibble over this, there is a possibility that quib can be traced back to the plural of the Latin word qui, meaning "who," which was often used in legal documents. If so, that makes quibble a very distant cousin of the English word who.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2019 is:bombast \BAHM-bast\ noun: pretentious inflated speech or writingExamples:Laura complained that the editorial columns in her local newspaper were full of bombast and offered little in the way of intelligent opinion."Now that a new top-grossing movie of all time is about to be crowned, it seems the bombast of summer tentpole season has begun." — Richard Lawson and K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair, 6 May 2019Did you know? The original meaning of bombast in English was "cotton or other material used as padding or stuffing." It is derived through Anglo-French bombés or bombace, from a Medieval Latin word (of various forms, including bambax and bombax) meaning "cotton plant, cotton fiber or wadding." Bombax was once thought to be a corruption of bombyx, a Latin (and ultimately Greek) word that means "silkworm" or "silk," although etymologists weren't certain why the shift from silk to cotton occurred. It turns out, however, that bombast's origins are more direct and unassuming: the Latin bombax is not a product of the silky bombyx but was borrowed from the Middle Greek bámbax, pámbax, which in turn probably traces back to the Middle Persian pambak ("cotton"). Bobasmt is no longer used in the sense of cotton padding or stuffing, but the word has been retained in modern English in a figurative sense referring to speech or writing that is stuffed or padded with pretense and unnecessary verbiage.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2019 is:kinetic \kuh-NET-ik\ adjective1 : of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith2 a : active, livelyb : dynamic, energizing3 : of or relating to kinetic artExamples:"See, that's where the height of the spaghetti mound comes in. The entire question hinges on how much momentum the meatball obtains as it rolls down. If the mound is very tall, the force of gravity could transform the meatball's potential energy into sufficient kinetic energy." — Arthur B. McDonald, The Washington Post Magazine, 17 Mar. 2019"East London's kinetic buzz of nightclubs, galleries, mosques, boutiques, synagogues, workers, government housing and condos, not to mention the traffic and the food markets … well, it can make a newcomer dizzy." — José Sarmento Matos and Evelyn Nieves, The New York Times, 20 Mar. 2019Did you know?Kinetic comes from the Greek word kinētikos, meaning "of motion," which in turn traces to the verb kinein, meaning "to move." Compared to some other English words that have their roots in Greek, kinetic is a relatively young English word; the earliest evidence we have of its use is from the 19th century. Although it deals with the motion of images rather than material bodies, the word cinema is also related to kinein. The verb kinein is the source of the Greek kinēma, meaning "movement," to which the French referred in the coining of their cinématographe. Cinématographe is the word that gave rise to the English word cinematograph, of which cinema is simply a shortened form.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2019 is:malapert \mal-uh-PERT\ adjective: impudently bold : saucyExamples:"Fair ladies, brave knights, churls, varlets, squires, scurvy knaves, men-at-arms, malapert rogues—all were merry." — P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories, 1914"Hers were never the records you confessed to owning—especially 'How Am I Supposed to Live Without You'—but the payoff of having a musical affair with her was hearing her blissfully malapert voice rip the material to shreds." — Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe, 21 Aug. 2005Did you know?Malapert debuted in English in the 15th century, was a favorite of Shakespeare, and is still used sporadically today. The prefix mal-, meaning "bad" or "badly" and deriving from the Latin malus, is found in many English words, including malevolent and malefactor. The second half of malapert comes from the Middle English apert, meaning "open" or "frank." Apert further derives from the Latin word apertus ("open"), which gave us our noun aperture (meaning "an opening"). Putting the two halves together gives us a word that describes someone or something that is open or honest in a bad way—that is, in a way that is rudely bold. The noun malapert also exists and means "a bold or impudent person."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2019 is:amalgamate \uh-MAL-guh-mayt\ verb: to unite in or as if in a mixture of elements; especially : to merge into a single bodyExamples:"Rolls-Royce has operational service centres around the world, in which expert engineers are analysing the data being fed back from their engines. It can amalgamate the data from its engines to highlight factors and conditions under which engines might need maintenance." — Bernard Marr, Forbes, 1 June 2015"When all the smaller municipalities in Hamilton-Wentworth were amalgamated into the City of Hamilton in 2001, there was resistance from the smaller suburban communities to the loss of their local governments." — Peter Clutterbuck, The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, 27 Mar. 2017Did you know?The noun amalgam derives, by way of Middle French, from Medieval Latin amalgama. It was first used in the 15th century with the meaning "a mixture of mercury and another metal." (Today, you are likely to encounter this sense in the field of dentistry; amalgams can be used for filling holes in teeth.) Use of amalgam broadened over time to include any mixture of elements, and by the 18th century the word was also being applied figuratively, as in "an amalgam of citizens." The verb amalgamate has been in use since the latter half of the 1500s. It too can be used either technically, implying the creation of an alloy of mercury, or more generally for the formation of any compound or combined entity.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2019 is:nuance \NOO-ahnss\ noun1 : a subtle distinction or variation2 : a subtle quality : nicety3 : sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)Examples:"Poetry can enrich the academic and creative life of every student—from a second-grade English Language Learner exploring the nuances of language to the high school student learning to craft stories beyond their next text message." — Suma Karaman Rosen, The Detroit Free Press, 5 Apr. 2019"The beloved diva sustained exquisite control of her vast vocal resources, enriching line after line with gleaming tone and subtle nuance." — Martin Bernheimer, The Financial Times, 15 Nov. 2016Did you know?The history of nuance starts in Latin with the noun nubes, meaning "cloud." Nubes floated into Middle French as nue, also meaning "cloud," and nue gave rise to nuer, meaning "to make shades of color." Nuer in turn produced nuance, which in Middle French meant "shade of color." English borrowed nuance from French, with the meaning "a subtle distinction or variation," in the late 18th century. That use persists today. Additionally, nuance is sometimes used in a specific musical sense, designating a subtle, expressive variation in a musical performance (such as in tempo, dynamic intensity, or timbre) that is not indicated in the score.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2019 is:circumspect \SER-kum-spekt\ adjective: careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences : prudentExamples:"The response in several previously frozen markets for short-term financing was extremely positive, and stock investors were jubilant. However, the reaction in longer-term fixed income and commodities markets, especially for gold, has been more circumspect." — James C. Cooper, Business Week, 8 Oct. 2007"… Churchill resisted the idea of Britain participating as a member of the European Community. He looked upon such entanglements as detrimental to the British Empire he loved. He was even circumspect of their membership in NATO." — Don Cassiday, The Sahuarita (Arizona) Sun, 30 Mar. 2019Did you know?Circumspect, cautious, wary, and chary all imply looking before you leap, but each puts a unique spin on being careful in the face of risk or danger. Circumspect, which descends from Latin circum- ("around") and specere ("to look"), implies the surveying of all possible consequences before acting or deciding (as in "he is circumspect in business dealings"). Cautious suggests fear of danger and the exercise of forethought that it prompts (as in "a cautious driver"). Wary emphasizes suspiciousness and alertness in sensing danger and cunning in escaping it (as in "keep a wary eye on the competition"). Chary implies a cautious reluctance to give, act, or speak freely (as in "she is chary of signing papers without reading them first").See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2019 is:nectar \NEK-ter\ noun1 a : the drink of the Greek and Roman godsb : something delicious to drinkc : a beverage of fruit juice and pulp2 : a sweet liquid that is secreted by the nectaries of a plant and is the chief raw material of honeyExamples:"Hummingbirds need to eat a third to a half of their body weight daily to fuel their high-energy lifestyle, Allen said. Their diet includes nectar for carbohydrates and insects for protein." — Kym Pokorny, The World (Coos Bay, Oregon), 4 Apr. 2019"When Drew Barrymore's nutritionist, Kimberly Snyder, recently shared her Pomegranate Kale Salad recipe, I noticed something interesting. She uses coconut nectar to add a touch of sweetness to the base of white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil." — Tehrene Firman, Well + Good, 21 Mar. 2019Did you know?Nectar is often mentioned in conjunction with ambrosia, the food of the Greek and Roman gods. For centuries, English speakers have used ambrosia to refer to something with an extremely pleasing taste or smell, and nectar to refer to a delicious drink, especially a fruit juice. To the ancient Greeks and Romans, however, the powers of nectar and ambrosia far exceeded those of any earthly fare; consuming nectar and ambrosia gave the gods their immortality. In Greek, the literal meanings of ambrosia and nectar are "immortality" and "overcoming death," respectively. Nektar is believed to be a compound of Greek nek- (probably akin to Latin nec-, meaning "death") and -tar (probably akin to Sanksrit tarati, meaning "he overcomes or crosses over").See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2019 is:shot-clog \SHAHT-klahg\ noun: a bore tolerated only because he or she pays the shotExamples:I'd planned to reimburse Jerry for the meal via PayPal, but after sitting through a lengthy evening of him holding forth on myriad topics, I decided it would be an unfair challenge to his reputation as a shot-clog."Alas! I behold thee with pity, not with anger: thou common shot-clog, gull of all companies; methinks I see thee walking in Moorfields without a cloak, with half a hat … borrowing and begging threepence." — John Marston, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman, Eastward Ho!, 1605Did you know?The shot in shot-clog refers to a charge to be paid. It's a cousin to, and synonymous with, scot, a word likely only familiar to modern speakers in the term scot-free, meaning "completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty." The origin of the clog part of shot-clog is less clear. Perhaps it's meant to draw a parallel between a substance that impedes a pipe's flow and a person who impedes a good time; or perhaps companions' tabs accumulate before the shot-clog as so much dross in a clogged pipe, while the shot-clog yammers on unawares. The 17th-century playwright Ben Jonson was particularly fond of shot-clog, and while the word is no longer in regular use, it might work for you as a suitable old-time insult for that person in your party who is fine to have around so long as they pick up the tab.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.